Spencer walked forward and was instantly surrounded by the familiar aftershave of a man he’d known practically since birth.
“Do your parents know you’re in town?” he asked robustly. “Your brothers?”
“My parents? Not yet, but I’m going to call them.” Spencer revealed, then gave a huge sigh, taking a few seconds to enjoy his welcome. “And my brothers? No. But I’m sure they will, soon enough.”
Yup.If he remembered anything about this place, the BPD gossip tree was rampant. It would already be spooling up into full-swing to “out” him.
CHAPTER 21
“Everybodyat your old department loves you,” Tabitha marveled as Spencer slid in behind the wheel of his truck. They were headed first to the grocery store, then a short way out of town to the cabin his friend Smitty had so generously offered.
“That’s because I’m so loveable,” Spencer quipped, expertly maneuvering his vehicle like he hadn’t been at sea and without his hands on a wheel for two years.
Tabitha leaned over the center console and gave his cheek a resounding kiss. “You are, indeed,” she agreed, but with humor so he wouldn’t worry that she was in danger of having fallen for him.
Fallen for him…
Had she?
Thinking logically, Tabitha couldn’t, at the moment, imagine any person to whom she’dratherplay sidekick, or any place she’d rather be than heading off on a domestic adventure with Spencer. But did that mean she was completely smitten? And if she was, would her brain still be in the same place once she’d been around him for a while? Met the rest of his family? Talked and planned more about the business he wanted to start?
Tabitha didn’t have the answers to those questions, just as she wasn’t sure if what she was feeling for Spencer was long-lasting, hit-over-the-head love, or simply a physical reaction to the danger they’d been in and how freaking compelling he was.
Her thoughts on it all were divided.
This trulywouldbe so much easier if it were a flash-in-the-pan, insta-crush, only. Then she and Spencer could have sex like bunnies over the next week or two while she waited for the verdict on her sub, after which she could scurry back to Florida and her real life; biding time for an insurance company check and the next steps she’d need to take.
If, however, her feelings for Spencer grew legs, there were so many freaking, moving parts to the unplanned trajectory she’d be taking with him, that nothing would be simple.
First, however, she’d have to make sure her growing tendresse for Spencerwasthe real deal.Thatkept coming up in her mind like a wash-cycle gone rogue.Repeat, rinse, repeat. Probably because the whole thing made her nervous. Then, of course, if she shortly became certain of her own emotions, she’d have to see whetherhewas just playing at the hearts and flowers thing, or if he felt the same bonding.
If both of those things panned out, then she’d have to determine if they’dworkwell together.
Not necessarily a given.
With them both being alpha-personalities, they might clash as business partners.Thatwas a thing, for sure. She’d rubbed elbows and created unholy-fire with a few CEOs for whom she’d done work in the past, and it hadn’t been pretty.
She’d set that potential problem aside for now.
Third, and most importantly, there was Sheila. She, along with Tabitha, had already been through so much. They’d both been devastated when their parents had died, and subsequently it had taken not just months, but years before Sheila had comearound to their new reality. And now that she was settled, how would Sheels feel about moving? If she put up a fight and refused, would Tabitha nix relocating to Maine to stay near her sister?
The answer to that, sadly, was yes.
Tabitha’s allegiance had to be to Sheila first, because her sister needed her. If Spencer and Tabitha’s association proved to be love, for real, they’d have to find a way to make a long-distance relationship work. End of story.
“What are you thinking about so hard, over there?” Spencer questioned with a quirk of his lips.
Yup. It had been mentioned before. They were already so freaking in tune with each other’s moods.
“Oh, not much. Just my entire future, and how screwed I might be if I make the wrong decision.”
“Heavy,” Spencer responded, then took one hand of the wheel to rest it on her thigh.
Immediately, the heat from his palm seeped inward, and her lady-parts warmed nicely as well.
He spoke calmly. “You’re aware it generally does very little good to worry too much,” he schooled unnecessarily. She knew that. Not that it ever helped.
“Although I should talk,” he went on. “I tend to let my brain drag me into the ‘what-if’ abyss all the time, but like I just mentioned, it’s rarely productive. Did you know there was an Egyptian author who once said, ‘Fear doesn’t prevent death, it prevents life’? Pietro of all people told me that, and I try to remind myself of it when I get too caught up in my own shit.”
